Survival from burns in the new millennium: 70 years' experience from a single institution.

OBJECTIVE

This review explores the series of published analyses from Massachusetts General Hospital to better understand how changes in medical specialization of burn medicine likely enabled the most important increase in survival from burns in the past 70 years.

BACKGROUND

Seventy years ago, survival from the most serious burn injuries was not possible even in the most advanced countries until critical advances were introduced. Insights into those few medical advances that actually impacted survival might be better understood from the consideration of a continuous series of survival analyses over 7 decades at Massachusetts General Hospital.

METHODS

Mortality data from previously reported probit and logit analyses from thousands of patients treated at Massachusetts General Hospital were reviewed. A comparison of mortality from these prior mortality analyses from a more recent multicenter study and a national data set was performed.

RESULTS

The only giant leap forward in survival occurred during the 1970s, with no improvement during either the preceding or subsequent 30-year intervals. Despite the many modern advances that have been added to the care of these patients since 1984, although these may have represented medical progress, these advances did not impact survival.

CONCLUSIONS

Survival rates from burn injury may have been maximized by current treatment approaches within medical centers of excellence in burn medicine. Further efforts to improve the quality of life of survivors of burn injury should ultimately have very favorable impact upon the long-term outcomes in these patients who now survive such devastating injuries.